Videos: Meteor lights up Russian skies; Update: Injuries now up over 900

posted at 8:01 am on February 15, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

Pretty spectacular — and a little frightening, one might imagine, if one of these streaked across your field of vision. Russia Today’s English-language service reports on the phenomenon observed over the last several hours, which also shattered windows in the Urals region as the meteor exploded in the atmosphere (via The Corner):

The Washington Post reports hundreds of injuries have been sustained from the meteor, 34 of them seriously enough to be hospitalized:

A meteor that scientists estimate weighed 10 tons (11 tons) streaked at supersonic speed over Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday, setting off blasts that injured some 500 people and frightened countless more.

The Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement that the meteor over the Chelyabinsk region entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph) and shattered about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above ground.

The fall caused explosions that broke glass over a wide area. The Emergency Ministry says more than 500 people sought treatment after the blasts and that 34 of them were hospitalized.

“There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people’s houses to check if they were OK,” said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region.

No one is quite sure yet whether the light and sound show came from a single meteor or from a series of them, as the Guardian reports. This video seems to indicate more than one, and gives a good idea what it sounded like to be close to the explosion:

By the way, why do so many Russians appear to have dashboard cameras in their cars? The Guardian explains that, too, by linking to Animal New York:

In Russia, everyone should have a camera on their dashboard. It’s better than keeping a lead pipe under your seat for protection (but you might still want that lead pipe) …

Psychopaths are abundant on Russian roads. You best not cut anyone off or undertake some other type of maneuver that might inconvenience the 200-pound, six-foot-five brawling children you see on YouTube hopping out of their SUVs with their dukes up … These fights happen all the time and you can’t really press charges. Point to your broken nose or smashed windows all you want. The Russian courts don’t like verbal claims. They do, however, like to send people to jail for battery and property destruction if there’s definite video proof …

Dash-cam footage is the only real way to substantiate your claims in the court of law. Forget witnesses. Hit and runs are very common and insurance companies notoriously specialize in denying claims. Two-way insurance coverage is very expensive and almost completely unavailable for vehicles over ten years old–the drivers can only get basic liability.

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Over in the QOTD thread, RWM had some info that said the Russian’s HAD engaged it and DID shoot it down.

Jabberwock on February 15, 2013 at 8:31 AM

For comparison purposes, the MLRS rocket can achieve velocity of roughly 12 miles per second. The meteor velocity was estimated to be about 9 miles per second. I don’t know if the Russians have a weapons system comparable to the MLRS. But it’s doubtful that the rocket payload has enough power to affect an object with enough kinetic energy to light up the sky during broad dayliight.

ROFL….Are you really that stupid? since you can't for whatever reason accept the fact the GOV and media lies to you you label it a conspiracy. If a ELE is known in advance the general population will be the last to find out.

Now, if *I* were President, I would tell the CIA, “Go ahead, play this up. Leak some papers. Deny some things very publicly. Give it some room to run.”

If a huge, uninformed portion of the world thinks we have machines that can control their brains and make their bodies explode like atom bombs and rain rocks from heaven down on their little hamlets, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. These are the sorts of people who will dislike their governments (or the neighborhood terrorist) antagonizing us.

This wasn’t a school shooting, but where’s the OUTRAGE on planning a system to counter these DOOMSDAY scenarios should one actually come to destroy EARTH?!

As we’ve seen any gun related event send severyone running in the streets screaming GUN LAWS GUN LAWS! We”ll these High SPeed space rocks have the potential to destroy the entire EARTH schoolkids and ALL, yet no one saying one ting about developing a system immediately if not sooner to address the heavenly threats.

In our lifetime we have seen a near miss to Jupiter leave a mark the SIZE oF THE EARTH ON JUPITER. Today we see TWO EVENTS unbelieveably similar on the same day yet the odds are astronomical this could have happened.

The current leadership is faulty to the detriment of the WORLD. Worried about guns when its maniacs to be dealt with, and then absolute silence on two events which risked civilization itself.

Lessons were to be learned today. Did we learn? Russia I think might have picked up a little. Hoarding gold won;t stop this. Making a vaccine wont stop it. Nature is talking. Is anyone listening?